Introduction to Computer Science

• Computer system:
• a group of associated components that work together
• Categorise into 2 major components
• Hardware
• Software
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Hardware
• is the physical parts of the computer(tangible parts)
• Classify into two major parts
• System unit
• Peripheral unit/devices
• System unit
• plastic/metallic box/case that houses the motherboard, CPU, NIC memory, drive bays,
speaker, expansion slot etc.)
• CPU – central processing unit(or processor) - is the brain of the computer
• The CPU consist of the following
• Arithmetic logic unit(ALU)
• Control unit(CU)
• Registers
• CPU operates in fetch - execute- cycle
Introduction to Computer Science
• Cache - is located in the processor to provide fast memory access
• Main memory – random access memory(RAM)
• Computer work areas
• volatile
 Introduction to Computer Science

• Peripheral unit
• Any components connected to the computer
• Classify into three main components
• Input unit
• Output unit
• Storage unit
• Input unit – collect data and send it to computer
• E.g.: mouse, keyboard, stylus, webcam, trackball, MICR, etc
• Output unit – send data to the outside world
• E.g.: Screen, printer, speaker
• Storage unit – record and or retrieve items to and from storage media
• also known as mass/secondary/auxiliary storage
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Major storage unit are
• Magnet storage
• Disk drive
• Floppy drive (now obsolete)
• Optical drive
• Compact disk (CD)
• Digital video/versatile disk(DVD)
• Blu-ray dis(BD)
• Solid state drive:
• Memory card
• Flash drive
• Cloud storage
 Introduction to Computer Science

• Software
• generic name for programs
• Instructions to computer to perform task
• Classify into two basic types:
• System software
• Application software
• System software
• control the operations of the computer and its devices. Categorised into three:
• Operating system(OS)
• Utility programs
• Translator
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Operating system
• programs that manages and coordinates all the activities on computer
• E.g. windows, MacOS, Linux
• Utility programs
• These are programs responsible for routine operations within the computer
system. It perform tasks related to managing or maintaining the computer
system.
• Backup utilities/ Restore are the programs designed to backup or keep a
duplicate copy of the contents of a hard disk drive on floppy/ diskettes, CD,
DVD, flash drive, tape.
• Files maintenance(copy, delete, move),
• File compression / Data compression programs are the programs used for
compressing large files, thereby freeing up disk space.
• Diagnostic Software: These are programs designed to help in finding
and correcting problems on the computer.
• Disk defragmentation: A program that reorganizes contiguously
programs that were initially non contiguous on the memory to free
more space for incoming programs and to improve access time.
• Vaccine Programs are the program designed to prevent virus from
entering the computer system. They are popularly called antivirus
software.
Translator

• It converts written program to object program/code or

machine code. There are 3 main types:
• Compiler – set of program that translate a high level
programs, converts source code into object code
which is machine equivalent in batches
• Assembler – set of programs that translates or
converts assembly language into object code
• Interpreter – set of program that does its translation
of high level language converts and executes source
code one line at a time.
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Application software
• programs that solve specific problems or perform general operation that
satisfy user needs.
• E.g. Payroll program, Word processor(MS word), Database package(MS access),
Spreadsheet package, Graphic/ Presentation Package, Communication Package,
Analytical/ Statistical Package.
Programming Languages
• Programmers write instructions in various programming
languages, some of which are directly understandable by
computers and others of which require intermediate translation
steps. Although hundreds of computer languages are in use
today, the diverse offerings can be divided into three
• General types:
• 1. Machine languages
• 2. Assembly languages
• 3. High-level languages
Machine Language
• Machine languages generally consist of streams of numbers (ultimately
• •reduced to 1s and 0s) that instruct computers how to perform their most elementary operations.
• •Machine languages are machine-dependent, which means that a particular machine language
can be used on only one type of computer. The following section of a machine-language program,
which adds overtime pay to base pay and stores the result in gross pay, demonstrates the
incomprehensibility of machine language to the human reader.
• •+1300042774
• •+1400593419
• •+1200274027
• •Disadvantages of Machine Lang.
• •As the popularity of computers increased, machine-language programming proved to be
excessively slow, tedious and error prone.
Assembly Language
• Assembly Language
• •Instead of using the strings of numbers that computers could directly understand,
programmers began using English-like abbreviations to represent the elementary
operations of the computer. These abbreviations formed the basis of assembly
languages. Translator programs called assemblers convert assembly language
programs to machine language at computer speeds. The following section of an
assembly-language program also adds overtime pay to base pay and stores the result
in gross pay, but presents the steps more clearly to human readers than does its
machine-language equivalent:
• •LOAD BASEPAY
• •ADD OVERPAY
• •STORE GROSSPAY
Although such code is clearer to humans, it is incomprehensible to
computers until translated into machine language.
Although computer use increased rapidly with the advent of assembly
languages, these languages still required many instructions to
accomplish even the simplest tasks. To speed up the programming
process, high-level languages, in which single statements accomplish
substantial tasks, were developed. Translation programs called
compilers convert highlevel-language programs into machine language.
High Level language
High-level languages enable programmers to write instructions that look
almost like everyday English and contain common mathematical notations.
A payroll program written in a high-level language might contain a
statement such as
• •grossPay = basePay + overTimePay

• Obviously, programmers prefer high-level languages to either machine

languages or assembly languages.
• Visual Basic .NET is one of the most popular high- level programming
languages in the world.
Differences between High Level Language
and Low Level Language
High Level Language Low Level Language
Programmer Friendly Machine Friendly
Easy to understand by the programmer Difficult to understand
Easy to debug Difficult to debug
Portable Not Portable
Compiler or interpreter for translation Assembler for translator
Less memory efficient High memory efficient
Widely used for programming Not widely used
High Level Language Low Level Language
It can run on any platform It is strictly dependent on the machine.
Simple to maintain Tough to maintain
Mostly used for academy projects Not noticed for academy projects.
Summary of Programming Languages

•Machine code
•Assembly language
•High-level languages
• –Fortran, LISP, Cobol
• –C, Pascal, Basic, Smalltalk
• –C++, Eiffel
• –Java, C#
• •Scripting languages
• –Shell scripts, Perl, TCL, Python, JavaScript, VBScript
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Solving Problems
• To solve computer programming problem you follow this basic steps:
• Problem statement/definition
• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Code
• Test and Debug
• documentation

• Analysis
• problem analysis leads to requirement specification which include:
• Output requirement
• Input requirement
• Processing requirement
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Design
• after analysis is to design solution using the following tools:
• Flowchart
• Pseudocode
• Structure(hierarchical) chart

• Implementation
• Code – translate algorithm to appropriate programming language
• Test & debug – locate and remove bugs(errors)
• Document- describe the program
Developing Algorithm
• Any computing problem can be solved by executing a series of
actions in a specific order.
• A procedure for solving a problem, in terms of
• 1. the actions to be executed and
• 2. the order in which these actions are to be executed, is called
an algorithm.
• The following example demonstrates the importance of
correctly specifying the order in which the actions are to be
executed.
• Consider the “rise-and-shine algorithm” followed by one junior
executive for getting out of bed and going to work: (1) get out of
bed, (2) take off pajamas, (3) take a shower, (4) get dressed, (5)
eat breakfast and (6) go to work. This routine prepares the
executive for a productive day at the office.
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Algorithm
• a precisely specified procedure for solving problem
• A good algorithm should have the following properties:
• Input
• Output
• Definite
• Effective
• Finite
• Efficient
• General
• Basically, problem solving in computer programming follows this process:
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Basic flowchart symbols:
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Flowchart to computes grade average:
Pseudocode
• Pseudocode is an informal language that helps
programmers develop algorithms. Pseudocode is
similar to everyday English; it is convenient and user-
friendly, but it is not an actual computer programming
language.
• Pseudocode programs are not executed on
computers. Rather, they help the programmer “think
out” a program before attempting to write it in a
programming language, such as Visual Basic.
 Introduction to Computer Science
• Pseudocode:
1. Program: Determine average grade of a class
2. Initialize Counter and Sum to 0
3. Do While there are more data
4. Get the next Grade
5. Add the Grade to the Sum
6. Increment the Counter
7. Loop
8. Compute Average = Sum / Counter
9. Display Average
 Introduction
Visual Basic is a high level programming language evolved from
the earlier DOS version called BASIC. BASIC was developed in
the mid-1960s by Professors John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz of
Dartmouth College as a language for writing simple programs. It
is a fairly easy programming language to learn. The codes look a
bit like English Language.
VB was developed by Alan Cooper in 1991. VB is a visual and
events driven programming language. In BASIC, programming is
done in a text only environment and the program is executed
sequentially.
In VB programming is done in a graphical environment because
users may click on a certain object randomly so each object has
to be programmed independently to be able to response to
those actions(events).
Therefore, a VB program is made up of many subprograms,
each has its own program codes and each can be executed
independently and at the same time each can be linked
together in one way or another.
The VB environment
• A project is a collection of files that make up your application.
• The VB environment consist of the following:
• - the Blank Form Window which you can design your
application interface. It is a window that appears on the screen.
Forms are the window and dialog boxes you place on the screen.
It is the main window of the application .
• - the Project window displays the files that are created in your
application.
• - the Properties window which displays the properties of
various controls and object that are created in your
applications. the properties determines the object size, color
name, location and appearance on the screen. it tells
something about an object such as its name, color, size location.
The toolbox that consists of all the controls essential for
developing a VB application. An objects (controls) are
items that appears on a form or component place inside a
form such as command button, radio button, check box,
scroll bar, label, option button to get input or display
outputs. Each object has properties, methods and events.
Methods is an action associated with object. Methods
have parentheses while Properties does not.
Event occur when the user takes an action such as press
the key, move a mouse, clicking a button, clicking a
mouse, scrolling and closing a window.
 Introduction to VB
Each object is based on a class. A class is a template/
blueprint used to create a new objects. It contains the
definition of all available properties, methods and events.
Each time new object create, it must be based on a class.
For example, placing three buttons on form. Each button is
based on the button class and is considered one object
called an instance of the class. Each button (instance) has its
own set of properties, methods and events. One button may
be labeled OK another Cancel another Exit. When the user
clicks the OK button that buttons click event occurs, if the
user clicks on the Exit button that button click event occurs
Visual Studio .NET is Microsoft’s Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) for creating,
running and debugging programs (also called
applications) written in a variety of .NET
programming languages.
This IDE is a powerful and sophisticated tool for
creating business-critical and mission-critical
applications.
IDE contains properties window which is used to
view and set properties objects.
Although Visual Basic is derived from the BASIC
programming language, it is a distinctly different language
that offers such powerful features as graphical user
interfaces, event handling, access to the Windows 32-bit
Application Programming Interface (Win32 API), object-
oriented programming and exception handling.
It helps in creating window application. It was integrated
into visual studio in order to facilitate creating server side
component and web application. It is the current release
VB.
It is a fully object oriented language. One of its features is
easy to use i.e it makes life easier e.g writing Microsoft Office
Automation program.
VB is an object oriented language used to write application
program that run in window. In the object oriented model,
classes are used to create objects that have properties,
methods and events.
The process of rapidly creating an application is typically
referred to as Rapid Application Development (RAD). Visual
Basic is the world’s most widely used RAD language.
Most of the development in Visual Basic is done in two
windows,
(the Form window and the Code window).
The Form window is where the form is designed. That’s
where you put all the text, pictures, and controls for your
program. This is often called the interface and is what the
user sees when the program runs.
The Code window is where the code is written. That’s where
you put the directions for the program. A user never sees the
code window.